This study examines the provision of post-release services for female ex-prisoners who have committed drug-related offences in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A key question addressed by this research is what factors affect the efficiency and fairness of resettlement services for these women. Data were collected via 20 face-to -face semi-structured interviews with the professional experts responsible for implementing, delivering post-release services and working with female ex-prisoners. The practitioners discussed post-release services for female ex-prisoners and how socio-cultural and religious factors have affected the process of reintegrating female ex-prisoners into society. This assessment includes an investigation into the main issues that may hamper the effectiveness of resettlement services for women such as rejection by family members and being stigmatised by society, and the need for a more gender-sensitive approach, especially for women who are pregnant or have children. The main findings of this study indicate that since the Saudi Government has made a significant effort to improve women’s rights and change society’s attitudes towards women, there is considerable development in the recent years in the sector of rehabilitating female ex-prisoners and supporting them after release. However, many female ex-prisoners are affected not only by feeling of shame and stigmatisation, but also by the ramifications of the patriarchal society and extremist religious views toward female criminal behaviours. Consequently, the previous factors seem to affect negatively the process of reintegrating those females after release as some of them still struggle on their release to find safe housing, employment opportunities, and effective mental health services.

The first residential community-based alternatives to custody for justice involved women opened in the UK in 2023 marking a potential pivot point in the history of the criminalisation of women. They have been slow to emerge against a backdrop of cross-party political consensus and government policy recognition for over a decade that prison is inappropriate and harm-inducing for the majority of women serving sentences within the prison estate. Paradoxically, in the absence of residential community-based alternatives magistrates have sent women to prison for ‘their own protection’ and as ‘a place of safety’ in cases where sentencing into the community was deemed unsafe. With the introduction of residential alternatives aiming to divert women from prison by providing appropriate environments addressing complex health needs and histories, since 2023 a safe community sentencing option has become available to magistrates in some regions of the UK. This paper focuses on the first residential community-based alternative to open in England, ‘Hope Street’ envisioned to become a blueprint for change towards redesigning the criminal justice system for better outcomes for women and their children. The pioneering initiative operating in Hampshire provides space for women and their children to live together whilst the women are offered bespoke wrap around support to rebuild their lives. One year on since the first arrival at Hope Street, this paper presents some initial findings from the independent evaluation taking place, explores some of the challenges, and reflects on to what extent the desire for diversion away from prison for women facing short term sentences is being met.

This presentation explores structural, institutional, and personal barriers women face during reentry in Portugal, filling a gap in national research and contributing to the international debates on gendered reentry experiences. It provides a critical understanding of the impact of imprisonment on the lives of women, their families, and their communities in Portugal.
Women’s reentry experiences are analysed based on 12 interviews, 6 from the time women were serving time in prison and 6 from the first 6 months after these women were released. We analyse (i) the perceived role of the prison and social reintegration services in preparing women for their release, (ii) the gendered challenges faced by these women during incarceration and during the post-release period, and (iii) the strategies used to cope when re-entering their communities.
While analysing women’s reentry experiences over time through their narratives, we show that structural inequalities, violence, and incarceration intersect to put women in a continuous, gendered punishment, endured long after the end of a prison sentence. In light of these findings, we argue that feminist campaigns ought to take more seriously decarceration and prison abolition.

Through narrative interviews with 15 women with histories of imprisonment, this presentation explores the role of housing and ‘home’ in women’s desistance. The presentation argues that safety and control are key psycho-social benefits of ‘home’ that support women’s ontological security. The women’s ‘homes’ – as sites of safety and control – could provide a space for them to construct drug and crime free identities and ultimately ‘do’ desistance. Moreover, their ‘homes’ became a physical manifestation or ‘expression’ of their changing identities which served to motivate and further reinforce their desistance.